I am looking for some good personal defense ammunition, something to protect me at home. Which ammo will suit this need?

Any good modern JHP from a major manufacturer will work fine. Spend your mental energy on learning to shoot well and ignore the hype about one "magic bullet" versus another. Anything you can comfortably fire from a pistol is weak, anyway.

Any good modern JHP from a major manufacturer will work fine. Spend your mental energy on learning to shoot well and ignore the hype about one "magic bullet" versus another. Anything you can comfortably fire from a pistol is weak, anyway.

I'm partial to Federal HST and Speer Gold Dot. I typically use HST unless they're not available in that caliber, or if my gun won't feed HST.

I like HST since it's pretty cheap...$20/50 isn't too bad...Gold Dots are a few bucks more per box.

Just don't buy any of that "fang face" crap, or whatever it's called

My choices as well. You can look at the test data all day long and your head will hurt. The HST always scores well against other designs and is cheaper. So cheaper wins for me. HST typically expands to a larger diameter which helps create a larger wound channel.

Ballistic Gelatin test results can be mind boggling and confusing. The most confusing for me is when you get to the +p and 115gr vs 124gr vs 147gr debates.

It has very good info on bullet design and some test data. Also has a list of recommended and tested ammo to try. I say try as you should always go to the range with a box of what you intend to carry/load for defense, and shoot it through your gun. Preferably you want at least 100 rounds of it through the weapon with no issues. If it jams, fails to fire, ejects poorly, doesn't cycle the slide properly, shoots all over the target and isn't accurate, or you find it too hard to handle in the recoil dept, try something else. It may seem like an expensive process but once you find what works and what you can get reliably, you can buy a box or 2 and probably never have to buy it again. Just use standard FMJ at the range and save your JHP defense ammo.

Any good modern JHP from a major manufacturer will work fine. Spend your mental energy on learning to shoot well and ignore the hype about one "magic bullet" versus another. Anything you can comfortably fire from a pistol is weak, anyway.

Yeah....I'm on that same boat. Telling you what I prefer would do you no good, same as me telling you what pistol you should have.

Whatever you go with (all the above recommendations are excellent) plan on shooting at least two of them in a genuine defense situation. Handguns are designed for portability and concealability, not one-shot-stopability. The biggest advantage to JHP rounds is that they make bigger holes and they are more likely to stay inside your attacker instead of passing through and injuring/damaging something in the background.

Defensive shooting has the same #1 rule as real estate: Location, location, location. The performance variables among most quality self-defense rounds (once they leave the barrel) are easily negated by accurate shooting.

Like Dredd mentioned, make sure the round you choose is a reliable feeder in YOUR gun.

For home defense, buckshot from a 12 or 20 gauge shotgun. If you insist on a handgun for home defense, use the biggest gun you can shoot well, buy any name brand JHP that shoots close to POA, and hit what you aim at as many times as necessary to make it stop or go away.